Ever felt like nothing you are doing is working? As though everything you’ve touched is performing less than acceptably? You feel like giving it all up, right?
It is a shitty way to feel, especially when it seems like you’re going it alone but there is a tiny flicker of light at the end of that tunnel- you’re not alone. I’m there more often than I will ever admit again and because I have dealt with this feeling for much of my life I have a little advice for you.
When you feel like giving up? Don’t.
Don’t give way to the barrage of negative thoughts that come to mind when your pet project doesn’t work out or you have issues with your personal relationships. Don’t give in to the overwhelming desire to shut it all down and chalk it up to a loss. Just don’t.
I am a garden writer. Last year my gardening pursuits failed terribly and I had nothing uplifting to talk about. I felt like giving up but I didn’t. This year I lost a lot of the seedlings I started, not to mention the personal issues from which none of us are immune.
Believe in yourself and in those around you enough to fight for what you believe in. Understand that perfection does not exist (not in this lifetime, anyway) and that the only perfect plants, projects or people are those that you don’t give up on even when they are totally and completely imperfect.
When you feel like giving up, know that you are not alone and just don’t.
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Awesome message Michael! You seem to have a flair for a more cerebral approach to writing, and show a layer of depth lacking in most of us writers of gardens and such. As my local chicken guru lady reminds me in every email…. “There is always, always, always, something to be thankful for.”
Well said — I often think that life is like a demolition derby, in which the prizes go not to the fastest or smartest but to the most persistent, the individuals who keep going through all the crashes and accidents and who are still moving when others have given up.
I feel your pain … this spring has been rough on us in Ohio. Rain, cold, super humid and now back to early spring with too much rain and cold. CHALLENGES make me work harder to succeed!
I needed to read this today. Thanks.
When someone I spent a lot of time with died recently, and I called my Mom to tell her, she said “Life is one crisis after another.” It is, and there’s no way to be ok unless you figure out how to find peace and enjoyment anyway.
Best wishes on finding your way.
This spring has been really challenging in the Northeast, I stare at my vegetable garden and keep thinking what am I doing wrong???
Thank you for sharing.